Mark Cuban warns NFL “hogs” risk eventual “implosion”

As NFL owners are gathering in Orlando to count their money and plan on how to make more, one of their NBA counterparts is firing a warning shot.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told reporters tonight that the NFL is bordering on over-saturation of the market, with dire consequences.

“I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion,” Cuban said, via Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com. “I’m just telling you, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy. Just watch. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way.

“I’m just telling you, when you’ve got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That’s rule number one of business.”

Cuban was speaking specifically of the NFL’s expanded television package, which will put NFL games on CBS this fall on Thursdays, with the games being simulcast on the NFL Network.

“They’re trying to take over every night of TV,” Cuban said. “Initially, it’ll be, ‘Yeah, they’re the biggest-rating thing that there is.’ OK, Thursday, that’s great, regardless of whether it impacts [the NBA] during that period when we cross over. Then if it gets Saturday, now you’re impacting colleges. Now it’s on four days a week. …

“It’s all football. At some point, the people get sick of it.”

So far, there is no indication of that, as the league has shown its greatest ability is to make money. This week’s discussion of expanding the playoff field is another step toward expanding potential broadcast revenue.

And while there’s an element of sour grapes in Cuban’s comments, he’s also a smart enough businessman to make it worth considering.

The NFL has a lot more concerning problems they should be addressing beyond expanding the TV options. I for one wouldn’t mind seeing football on 7 days a week but that’s just me. But if you want to give the NFL true business advice, then there’s a couple dozen things that they should be advised of before paying attention to this particular concern that Cuban raises.

I’m definitely never going to get sick of football, bring it on and give me more and make it a daily experience please!

He makes a point but at the sametime the NFL is still 1 game per week per team for 17 weeks. NBA, NHL and MLB are way oversaturated and their regular seasons are worthless and way too long.

chawk12thman says:Mar 23, 2014 8:08 PM

It isn’t a problem for the hog owners….just the hogs……

The NFL will be fine as they can’t extend the numbers of teams and games like the NBA and MLB did. Saturation won’t happen. Taking over Thursday night as with Monday Night won’t be a problem if they address the schedules/players short turn around issues.

He’s spot on. The Thursday Night and Monday Night games usually stink anyway. Just can’t get up for a Texans/Jaguars game in prime time. Keep that crap on the Sunday schedule where it can be overshadowed by better games.

Cuban ought to be worried about the NBA dying from mediocrity and the Mavs being just about dead

hvoigt21 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:11 PM

Cuban is absolutely correct. Greed in business seems to always bite you on the butt. Too much of anything is not good.

sanjosecupcrazy says:Mar 23, 2014 8:11 PM

I’ve always been a big fan of the way the NFL does business, but I’m getting sick of them trying to turn a dollar on every…. single…. little….. thing.

There was a time when baseball was in the same position as the NFL is now. They made the big cash grab, lost an entire generation of fans and lost their grip on being the “American pastime.” Certainly no doubt the same thing could happen to the NFL, especially if mid-to-upper-income families stop allowing their kids to play football due to concussions. This sport is going to look much, much different 20 years out.

Just because the NFL is over-saturating the market, doesn’t mean people are going to totally turn away from the product. That’s a faulty assumption on Cuban’s part. They may not tune in on the extra days, but are you telling me Sunday viewership and interest in the league as a whole will fade because games are being played extra days? There are reason’s people will turn away from the NFL, sub-par refereeing, taking too much out of the game for safety, too many rules, but it being on too much? Come on Cuban, be real. The NFL is the superiour product to the NBA given the shorter schedule and chance that ANYONE could win the championship. The NBA is too much of a grind and wayyyyy to predictable to ever get anywhere close to as popular as the NFL. Want to talk about greed? Sleeved jerseys and eventual ads on jerseys.

I generally only watch the games my team plays. I do watch a few games that effect my teams season, and of course the playoffs.
That’s a pretty finite number of games. Unless the schedule expands I won’t be watching any more games. All they are doing is spreading the schedule wider, not deeper.
So far.

Thursday night football is not as good as Sunday football. The short week really hampers the teams from preparing adequately. I say if you want to keep Thursdays only schedule two teams that had a bye week the week before. I also hate that on occasion one of the Thursday night team (usually the home team for some stupid reason) is coming off of the bye week while the visiting team played the week before and has to travel and play on the road. Makes zero sense.

I love pro football, but not 24/7. Too much of a good thing is not good. Sometimes more isn’t better; it’s just more. The NFL already dominates the sporting world 365 days a year…there’s not really an off-season, just a non-playing season.

Good rule to remember: Always leave ‘em wanting a little more.

tdubdizzle says:Mar 23, 2014 8:17 PM

The NFL executives are ‘Pigs’.

Good for Mark telling it how it is.

Football might be peaking now but it will crash and burn with the current circumstances impending and no resolve being present.

There are stretches during the season where College Football is on EVERY night of the week, in most cases it’s on Thursday through Saturday, I don’t see it suffering?

Where the NFL risks it’s current standing is the 18 game schedule and I’m not nuts about extra playoff teams either.

Putting games on CBS on Thursday nights is not the problem.

bsizemore68 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:19 PM

Why not! Look at Baseball, watching the early and late games with your winter coats, look at Basketball, almost the whole year, they are stepping all over each other, the cost is out of sight for most fans, however the all mighty dollar is alive and well in the NFL. I don’t call it greed, you just don’t know what you have until you lose it. Bill

Pro football depends on pee wee football, junior high school football, high school football and college football…Those are the starting places and foundations of the game…

thestrategyexpert, if you care so much for football, take time to watch and support the little kids, teenagers and young men of today who will be the pros of tomorrow…That is if you are not a Romanesque fat butted hedonist who sees football as merely entertainment instead.

Cuban is right. When the pros keep people home with their noses on a tv screen on thursday (junior high and jv), friday (high school) and saturday (college), they harm the game where it starts…Real football fans understand that!!

tdubdizzle says:Mar 23, 2014 8:21 PM

PFT doesn’t blatantly and fictionally attack Mark Cuban like they do most other people because Mark would come on the show and own them….

I don’t think the amount of days its on tv will be the problem. The problem will be the way its going now the game itself is changing with all the new rules. I think people will eventually get sick of what they’re doing with rules helping the offense and it being touch football that is its downfall if it has one.

Cuban is dead on. I used to be a huge football fan, it used to be my number 1 sport, but with all the rule changes, I have lost significant interest in it. A few years ago it was Football, Hockey, Baseball, now it’s Hockey, Baseball, Football as my favorite sports.

I grew up a fan of NBA Basketball. Magic, Bird, Jordan, the bad boy Pistons. Great teams and great players. The players and the teams were marketed well and the rivalries were marketed well and it was perfect. That is what the NFL has right now. I want it on TV every night if possible. It’s the best entertainment there is. If the NBA wants to compete they need to turn it back into a sport from entertainment. Call fouls and travelling and double dribbles and stop letting the athletes run the league. Cuban is a fool.

craniator says:Mar 23, 2014 8:22 PM

Everyone seems to think Cubehead is a genius in the business world , when what he really is is a computer Internet genius who cashed in his stock at the absolute best possible time.
To me , a much bigger problem than over exposure is this seemingly unending need to keep changing and modifying the rules . . .
you don’t see baseball changing it’s rules every year. I think this urge to keep tweaking and adjusting various aspects of the game is a much bigger threat than over exposure. Just my opinion.

He is absolutely 100% correct. Add on to the fact that fewer and fewer people can afford to go to the games, let alone, take an entire afternoon to watch a game, and you have an equation for a major collapse.

The Red Rifle says:Mar 23, 2014 8:22 PM

Andy Dalton is the best QB in the league.

tdubdizzle says:Mar 23, 2014 8:23 PM

Im surprised no Carolina Panther connection was made to Mark Cuban. Didn’t he go to a Panther game once?

It’s true. I’m a business major and he makes sense. I don’t think the Thursday night football expansion is going too far but more expansion will eventually turn on them. 18 games, 12 playoff games and a London football team are all going too far. Football is not meant to be a global sport like soccer. Most countries can’t relate to it and can’t afford football programs. People can get apathetic about anything. The gladiator games in Rome were supremely popular until society decided it was immoral. As our society changes we have decided that headshots are immoral. Maybe one day society will consider football as a whole immoral.

Hate to say it, but he’s right. Especially if they still call it “football” once Goodell is through with it….

theravenlives2 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:24 PM

Here’s my issue.

The NFL is by far the best and most popular sport in North America. Why, oh why, are the owners constantly messing with and changing EVERYTHING. People has obviously shown that they like what they are watching. Leave the damn game alone and stop trying to micromanage money out of everything.

cometkazie says:Mar 23, 2014 8:24 PM

kerzondax says:
Mar 23, 2014 8:04 PM

Agree 100%. I already think the market is over saturated. Over the past few years, for the first time in 50 years, I find myself saying at times “god I’m sick of football”.
+-+-+
That happens to me every December when the college football season is over.

Football might be peaking now but it will crash and burn with the current circumstances impending and no resolve being present.

———————-

It’s all about the product. If it’s good people will want to see it. The NBA has a bad product right now. The NFL has the best product. It’s not just the owners being greedy, it’s the fans that want more.

Thursday games on the NFL network will not grow in popularity because of the subscription and Americans do not feel they have to pay to view any football game. Mondays and Sunday’s are cool. Friday’s are for high school and Saturday is for college. Mark Cuban is right. Nobody in Texas is going to stay home on a Friday night and watch a Cowboy’s game. And, Nobody in their right mind is going to stay home and watch an NFL game on a Saturday when they could attend or watch their favorite college team. The NFL is extremely popular, but when you mess with America’s football traditions, you lose.

Part of what made the NFL popular was that it left you wanting more. It was available basically once a week for 5 months, it became appointment like. Now because of NFL Rewind and 24/7 sports channels (particularly NFL Network), it’s a little over saturated. I kinda had football fatigue the last two years.

An additional team team in the playoffs is a step to making the NFL regular season as meaningless as the NBA’s and further driving reasons NOT to watch games, I don’t care about adding a team that has little chance in winning and will be bounced early, that does not add too the excitement of viewing only to feeling September games are less meaningful. Outside if an occasional game or two I seriously only watch the NBA & NHL starting in the second round of the playoffs

i agree w/Cuban.
the packer owners (fans) are the epitome of his assessment.
Fat Hogs.

fmwarner says:Mar 23, 2014 8:29 PM

He’s exactly right.

That said, it’s pretty rich coming from a guy whose own league is about to put corporate ads on jerseys in order to “allow our marketing partners to get closer to our fans and players.” Whatever that means.

He is 100% correct. I am a season ticket holder in Jax and love watching football. I already don’t watch many of the Thursday night and Monday night games because I don’t want to watch two bad/mediocre teams. I already think the NFL is getting oversaturated. Seriously how many of you want to watch the Jags and Jets play on a Sunday? Because that is what you are going to see if they schedule the good games on prime time nights.

Diminishing marginal returns. Adding more does not mean better.

linemanguy74 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:29 PM

I was one that thought I could never get enough of the NFL ,but as grandsons get older and started playing sports all of sudden the NFL isn’t so important

He is correct. I usually loved the extra Thursday game but the fact is the majority of the were awful. Playoff expansion is awful, we are getting close to 50% of teams making the playoffs?? What makes the NFL great is that it is Exclsusive. The playoffs start for some teams in the 8th week, so EVERY game counts. Unlike basketball where most of us do not watch the regular season. If we go to 14 play off spots, eventually that will be 16. 18 game season will be 20 one day. People say no, but the season was only 12 games once so that’s the facts. On another note Cuban should lobby for contracting his league because the reason the NFL is so popular is because the other sports like his have no sense of urgency to win regular season.

Over-exposure will never be the problem, if the fans are interested in the matchup…they will watch it. The real problem that the NFL is when they mess with the rules to the point when it ceases to resemble what the fans know as pro football and they are very close to crossing that line. It may be attributed to over-saturation when it happens but the real fan knows when the product has been watered down too much.

It’s like too many commercials.. I just tune myself out.. It becomes background chatter.. I think he’s right though it takes a wise man to recognize where he is when he’s there and take appropriate safeguards rather than wait until you are hit with regrettable hindsight.. Greed is blinding..

lewiscafarella says:Mar 23, 2014 8:36 PM

America will never, I repeat, NEVER, get sick of football. Cuban is nuts.

cags777 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:37 PM

“And while there’s an element of sour grapes in Cuban’s comments,….” What exactly is Mark Cuban sour grapes about? He’s just stating a fact that NFL owners are getting too greedy – not only with the demand of taxpayer-funded stadiums, overpriced concessions, blackout threats, but also expanded television rights. I hope Cuban is wrong with his assessment about the future of the NFL. But it’s ridiculous to say that Cuban is sour grapes. If you truly think he is acting sour grapes, then back up your statements with facts.

ottawabrave91 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:37 PM

I think Mark Cuban took a trip over to Jim irsays house

dtlb58 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:38 PM

Did Roger Goodell go on Shark Tank and ask for advice and a loan?

I don’t remember hearing an NFL owner publicly telling the NBA how to run its business. Oh that’s right, because they are busy running their own.

Why would Cuba care if this happened anyhow? He just wants the world to know he predicted it I suppose.

Until the public pushes back and tells the NFL no more, they are just going to keep giving us more. Can you blame them?

I can say when it comes to living high on the hog I’m thinking most franchise owners are becoming very greedy. Greed and gluttony. The downward spiral of anything at it’s pinnacle.

jf203 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:40 PM

The problem is..they make Thursday matchups when teams are presumed to be good ..teams lose a few players and tank the season like Houston last year and they are still in prime time every other week….if they really want to help let the last 6 Thursday games be flexed like the Sunday night games…..but then I am sure it gets into a logistic problem..and hes right..I LOVE football..but after a while especially when your team isn’t playing real life creeps in and you cant be bothered

pftaddict says:Mar 23, 2014 8:41 PM

Cuban may be right but he should work on fixing his own sport first. I used to watch the NBA and go to an occasional game. However, I completely lost all interest in the NBA. I never watch a game on TV, never go to game, and I don’t read the NBA. I would much rather watch a Jags-Titans game than a Mavericks-Thunder game. I also love reading about the NFL. It is for that reason, I love checking PFT multiple times a day.

couldn’t agree more with Cubes. Especially if they think they can get away with terrible Thursday night games again. 18 games, international teams, more action for pat’s, pro bowl debacle – it’s too much and will reach a point of regression. Sunday and Monday is enough. Please no team in London, maybe Mexico City. Make the pro bowl a skills challenge like the qb challeng I grew up with, but for all positions.

djstat says:Mar 23, 2014 8:47 PM

Riiight. Because the season running from November to June isn’t over saturation…or a play off system that lasts 2 months.

nomoreseasontix says:Mar 23, 2014 8:48 PM

I actually agree with him. Weeknight football used to be an event on Monday nights. A big deal.
Now, I barely pay attention. And Thursday nights have gotten to be something I don’t even think about until I read the score the next day.
I think NFL games being played 4 days a week will dilute the product and people will stop paying attention.
And an 18 game season with expanded playoffs will be further cause for yawns. Especially if players can’t hold up for the longer season.
With more supply, demand will decrease. Economics 101.

Its not only Thursday night greed, it greed on every part of the NFL these days. Look at the Superbowl winner package. A $4 hat, $2 T Shirt and $.50 DVD and what do they charge $50-$60 ??? Charging fans on NFL.com to re watch a game during the week..really ?? They will kill the golden goose. And now changing the game with the PAT, and moving kick offs back and forth, over protection of offensive players, silly fines.

I just got off the phone with Mark, he’s fully intent on buying the Raiders and will speak with Commissioner Goodell about this soon.

roadtrip3500 says:Mar 23, 2014 8:49 PM

The NFL’s biggest draw in the 70s was the desire and wait for Sunday. You had a couple of afternoon games on Sunday, and Monday night on ABC. Cosell’s halftime highlights were often the only time many people even saw some teams in action, unless your area had a TV station that carried the NFL Films 30-miunute wrap-up shows of the previous week’s games.

Now, with NFL Red Zone and Sunday Ticket, the majority of Americans have access to every game, every week. The desire is gone. Add in fantasy sports that converted people from rooting for teams to rooting for players, and you have an audience that’s more concerned with stats and highlights than the simple admiration of the game itself.

Cuban is right. Four days a week is too much. Every team can be viewed; they don’t need to be specifically showcased on one of the night games. Let Fox and CBS split the Sunday afternoon games as they do, give NBC the Sunday nighter that can be flexed starting with Week 9, and be done with it. The junkies can watch all the NFL-themed shows all week on the cable sports networks and Inside the NFL. The rest of the fans will once again gain that desire and wait that made Sundays great in the past.

mianfr says:Mar 23, 2014 8:49 PM

Eh, soccer can be any day of the week in Europe and I don’t think they’re suffering from waning interest in it over there.

You may not like him but he speaks the truth. Nobody can deny the NFL and more specifically the commissioner is doing a lot of things with much disregard to the fans.

They figure they are untouchable and beyond reproach. It took a situation like with the Miami Dolphins and now openly gays coming into the league to force certain issues the NFL is not comfortable with or ready to handle.

The economy is tanking and there are few dollars to spread around for the four main sports, and people’s attention span. The NFL wants all the money and all the fans attention and that has not escaped Cuban.

Prime example is the draft moving a month and right smack into the middle of the NBA playoffs. A move that offers a revelation of their greed. Another example is the wholesale blackmail on stadiums with billionaire owners wanting citizens to carry the full burden and give them new palaces every 20 years.

I already dont watch the majority of MNF or any Thursday games unless my team is playing. I cant disagree with Cuban here.

shockey19 says:Mar 23, 2014 9:05 PM

He thinks the NFL playing on Saturdays will impact college. Somebody might want to explain to him that the NFL’s not allowed to play Saturday games during college football season. Just like they’re not allowed to play Friday games during high school football season. That’s why they started playing Thursday games, it’s the latest in the week the can play for most of the season. And that’s why they already play Saturday games late in the year, after college football’s regular season is over.

The NFL plays 256 games a year, three days a week for four months. The NBA and NHL play 1,230 games a year, seven days a week for seven months. MLB plays 2,430 games a year, seven days a week for six months. The differences are even bigger if you include the playoffs in each sport.

People already religiously follow every NFL game. Allowing easier access to another game every week certainly isn’t going to have a negative impact on the other games. They would to add games to the schedule to risk oversaturation, and that’s not happening anytime soon.

Then again, this is a guy that thinks the NCAA needs to do something about the one-and-done rule in basketball, even though it’s an NBA rule that the NCAA has literally nothing they can do to change, so clearly he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

I agree with Cuban, but it’s funny that he doesn’t see that his own league is doing the same thing forcing sleeved jerseys so they can put ads on them. Ads on jerseys does nothing to better the game for the players or fans, it just generates more money for the owners. That’s greed, Mark, and it makes you a hypocrite.

The game of basketball is flawed. A basketball game doesn’t get interesting until after 160 points have been scored. Basketball is a game of inconsequential score after inconsequential score. It’s tough for the NBA to compete with the NFL.

NFL Network has carried Thursday night games for several years now. I love having a Thursday night game redskins play once a week. Nationals play 5 games a week for more than 17 weeks.

bricketh says:Mar 23, 2014 10:00 PM

I only normally watch Thursday and Monday night games when my team plays…sometimes if a truly great matchup is on, I might pop in and out of it, but that has been rare in recent years. It is difficult to dedicate that many nights to just football, though I do follow all of the off-season stuff, but only via websites and the PFW in Progress web radio show….. I rarely watch the pregame shows, ESPN or NFLN. I’m sure I’m in the minority, and while I can understand saturation of the market perspective, I don’t necessarily feel that I’m allowing it to impact me in that way. I choose when to turn it on and off, so I stay engaged with it more steadily than if I dove into everything football that was available.

The guy has a great point. The Thursday matchups suck all around. They suck for the teams involved bc of the short week. The play suffers as a result. The teams are usually bad. So let’s add more! WOO! Expanding the playoffs is also a terrible idea. It’s bad enough that teams get in now with 8-8 records, throw two more teams in and 7-9 playoff teams will become the norm. Cuban took the Mavs from NBA laughingstock to a Title and perennial playoff contender. He’s a smart businessman. And everyone calling him a hypocrite for liking ads on NBA jerseys…um, the rest of the world does it (see soccer, foreign pro leagues, etc). And what does that have to do with his argument about the NFL becoming oversaturated? They aren’t proposing a longer NBA season, or more playoff teams (hell half the league gets in as it is). Apples and oranges. Along with the safety issues, the NFL is starting to remind me of the housing or tech bubble…one that will eventually burst.

mrhoban says:Mar 23, 2014 10:31 PM

Basketball sucks.

urcrap says:Mar 23, 2014 10:31 PM

I’m all ready beginning to wane. It’s less enjoyable to watch NFL football every season. Just a bunch of over groomed punks who play for big $$’s. Boring!

He is kind of right after all, the NBA is on NBA-TV on Monday and Tuesday night, ESPN on Weds, TNT on Thurs, ESPN on Friday, NBA-TV on Saturday and ABC on Sundays and have 5+ games on Christmas. Talk about over saturation. That’s why the NBA isn’t as popular as the NFL (for now), NASCAR or MMA, because those are 1-2 night events, not on every night with live/current games.

Goodell is an atrocious commissioner, some people work afternoon/evenings on Thurs and cant see the Thurs games or draft. Goodell is over saturating the NFL, meanwhile trumpeting the safety card. His players are playing games on short weeks yet he’s about safety?
Then he wants to cut extra points, kickoffs, hit above the neck, then sends teams to London to play multiple games or games on Thurs or Saturday night? What a hypocrit.

Some of you nitwits are missing the point of comparing NBA to the NFL. 82 games per year compared to 16 games..of course the NBA is on all the time oh and baseball has 162 games per year if you did not know, smh.

robseahawksfan says:Mar 23, 2014 10:37 PM

thepftpoet says:
Mar 23, 2014 8:13 PM
Every Vikings game should be on Thursday, that way the whole world can view greatness.

Expanding the exposure in US and abroad (see England) while doing little to preserve integrity of the game (see inconsistent officiating) and transforming the product to become more streamlined (see offense oriented rule changes) will make me turn away.

Over saturated? Dude u reap peoples money in an 82 game schedule.. thats 41 home games.. plus u made great money in the playoffs last decade. And didnt he vote yes on the new tshirt jersey so he can overasaturate his pocket when they start putting a mcdonalds logo on those sleeves.. gunna be nascar on a jersey..

Just srop trying to take down the nfl dude.. basketball isnt exciting anymore.. mj was the end of a great sport

skins1970 says:Mar 23, 2014 11:07 PM

I usually only watch football on Thursdays when my Skins play and on Thanksgiving day.

bobsnygiants says:Mar 23, 2014 11:10 PM

ROGER GOODELL IS THE PROBLEM

selgaeinla says:Mar 23, 2014 11:14 PM

NFL in Toronto = FAIL
NFL in London = Who cares

The NBA’s Chinese website registered 3.3 billion page views in 2011; this year, that number rose by 34% to 4.5 billion page views, while during the 2012-13 regular season, total video streams for the NBA rose 169% over the 2011-12 season, from 1.2 billion to 3.2 billion.

Those numbers are just a dream for the NFL. Better listen up to this fool, NBA is onto something. Yes, the numbers begin with a B, for billions of people.

Completely agree, and i think he should know firsthand from the league his team plays in. No one wants to watch watered down Thursday night games, which were terrible this past year, or another playoff game with another mediocre team most years. The next commissioner will look back in 15 years and wonder how Roger Goodell managed to mess this perfect thing up.

His point doesn’t make sense. Especially since the NFL season is shorter and has a lot less games than any other American sport. So if what he’s saying is true then shouldn’t he instead be worrying about the NBA “over saturating” the market with it’s repetitive Marquee matchups, no where near as profitable female counterpart and that whole thing where the referee’s fix the games.

Just saying. At least every team gets on National TV at least once via the Thursday Night games. Is there any other teams in the NBA other than the Heat yet?

bnwpnw says:Mar 23, 2014 11:30 PM

This coming from the NBA, where “leadership” consists of nuking fan interest in the entire NW region of the country to move franchises to Memphis and Oklahoma City. (And the hot ticket in Portland these days? Timbers, not Blazers.)

As for an NBA owner lobbing barbs at football, I’d rather watch an NFL preseason game any day of the week than the last two minutes of a tied game 7 of the NBA finals. (Or is it a best-of-9 series now?) And who even won last year?

If I want to see a sport implode, I’ll watch the NBA, a punk sport with punk commissioners (old and new) and for the most part punk owners. But little chance of that, because that would require actually watching the NBA.

I think they are fine keeping it how it is, but any more they will start to get in a little danger. The Sunday with 1 Monday and 1 Thursday, and a few Saturday games thrown in after the college regular season ends.

If they push into Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday, or a normal Saturday thing, they may start pushing it. Not because people don’t want to see more NFL. But because it’s going to be tough getting compelling games on those nights. As is, there have been some Thursday night games that are tough to watch. When it’s the only game between Monday and Sunday, people will still watch it. If there is another game or two sprinkled in, people will be less likely to watch a game with a bad matchup when they can just catch another tomorrow (or the day before)

liquidmuse says:Mar 24, 2014 12:04 AM

Here’s what boobtastic Cuban doesn’t understand—football is just a better game than basketball. PLUS, ‘the hell is he talking about, as the NFL has ramped DOWN Saturday games. So, they’re really just going to a bigger network on Thursday (what are we, 10 years into the Thursday thing?). That’s really the only change. Cuban got lucky with his ONE business venture (god bless ‘em), which DOES NOT mean he knows the “rules of business”, & it definitely doesn’t mean said rules apply to the NFL. Literally nothing has changed in terms of NFL saturation, & even if it did, football beats basketball 10 times out of 11, in terms of the structure of the product (& ironically enough, the NBA is on almost every nite of the week).

well mr. cuban, explain to me how a crappy product like the nba with it’s ref’s controlling the games(joey crawford:criminal #1),same teams every year(when are teams like sacramento and milwaukee gonna be in the finals(uhhhhhm never)in the playoffs, oh yeah, did i forget to mention the junk one on one me, me, me garbage that is played nightly, will ever compare to the great nfl. that’s right, it will not!!! the nba is not even worth watching. don’t try to bring down the best sport on the face of the earth!!!!! oh yeah, you were rewarded with that one nba championship, well, stern gave it to nowitzki….. #fixisin!!!

Sounds to me like Cuban is trying to hitch his wagon onto Adam Silver’s quest for sports domination. For all we know, he’s just trying to get on Silver’s good side so he doesn’t get sent to the principal’s office like he has so many times under David Stern.

Having said all of that, the only way the NFL makes him correct is if football fans stop consuming the product. Just by being here at this site, you’re feeding the beast that some of you rail against. Football may be overtaken at some point, maybe even sometime relatively soon; but it’s still king. Good football, bad football, we still watch it. And the players love their paychecks, so it’s hard to see them voluntarily picking up and walking away over one “short-week” game.

As much as Silver and Cuban want their league to overtake the true National Pastime, it would probably be better for Cuban to stay in his own lane. But with a mouth like his, that’s awfully hard to do.

I’m a true football fan. NFL or otherwise. I just love the game. Having said that, Thursday night games are an embarrassment. Doesn’t matter if it’s a matchup between good teams or bad, the quality of the product just absolutely sucks. I’ll more worried about the perversion of the rules than i am about any other issue. I love defense in any sport. Scoring is only special when done against some form of resistance. I love basketball too bit haven’t watched an NBA game since they took hand checking away, nearly 15 years ago. Thank God for college ball & i have no problem turning my back on the NFL if they turn it into an entertainment league where average scoring is in the 40s. Trying to appease the causal fan will destroy the league. Nascar learned that the hard way but the ego maniacal running any big business believe they’re infallible & too big to fail. If they try to take over Saturday will be a folly. If you think fans are loyal to their NFL team just wait until they have to choose between watching their college team or their college team. Even the NFL has to know they can’t compete with that with the exception of the casual fan who chooses their favorite team because they like their uniforms . Cuban is absolutely right whether you care for his brash behavior or not.

Mark cuban says this cuz his irrelevant little league would suffer ratings if they had to compete with another nfl game during the week. You are see through Cuban.

wave222 says:Mar 24, 2014 2:11 AM

I started watching and playing Football after first playing and watching Basketball. Then at
6’3″ there was no future for me in Basketball!
Football > Basketball (I LIKE BOTH SPORTS)
Unless you are close to 7′ tall or more why bother?
Basketball has become 3 Pointers & Dunks with very little team play!(Only gets good near the end of the game)
Football is on TV less.
Steve Tisch was on Shark Tank.
Please do not change the rules anymore!!!!
Everyone works different hours so why not have games on at different times & days?
Mark Cuban makes to much money to be speaking out about this; he should leave it to the Fans who pay to watch his sport and the NFL.

Gambling and fantasy football makes every night a great night for football!

philrat says:Mar 24, 2014 3:00 AM

The nfl just can’t compete during the week when there is more competition for programming on monday and thursday. This is why their ratings are down in addition to all the rules changes which have made the nfl an inferior product compared with years past when the games were more competitive and tackling was better. Unfortunately there isn’t much on tv on sundays that is why nfl does better on sundays!

let us know Mark, when your 100 million dollar NBA team is worth 2.2 billion like the Cowboys. and someone who’s worth 2 billion like you, who probably hides more of your money in the Cayman Islands like all billionaires, should ZERO to say about who’s greedy and who isn’t!!!!!!

Putting games on Saturdays in the fall will alienate a lot of college fans(customers). Putting games on Friday nights in the fall will alienate a lot of high school football folks(customers). Changing rules to make the game safer has alienated many of the ‘old school’ fans(customers). Don’t know as much about business as Mr. Cuban but alienating customers can’t be, as Triple H would say, “Best for business.”

detlions80 says:Mar 24, 2014 7:34 AM

For all the comments comparing NBA broadcast and market saturation to the same for the NFL, look at the NBA numbers. NBA ratings were at least 50% higher then they have been since leading up to 1998. Since then, they’ve been down. Perhaps, a smart business man is speaking from experience… I’d also add that, I think the league needs to pay a little more attention to their refs and the job they’re doing. Imo, some work needs to be done there to maintain the quality of the product the league is trying to sell.

GBwomenrhot says:Mar 24, 2014 7:44 AM

Plain and simple, he’s ragged since he doesn’t have a franchise…..and his Dallas NBA team isn’t winning like it was – SOUR GRAPES MARK, and your Shark Tank show is god awful.

How about the implosion of the obscene salarys that some of these players are getting??? Thats what eventually will implode.

laxnhockey says:Mar 24, 2014 9:25 AM

just worry about the over saturation of your own league and the completely mediocre product you’re offering your own fans.

I tuned out the NBA a long time ago; Bird, Magic, Mailman, Jordan was the last time the NBA was worth watching and then only for the finals.

NBA basketball is THE worst sport on television.

barneyrumble says:Mar 24, 2014 11:29 AM

It’s not like we only have three or four channels to choose from as an American populous, if that were the case then over exposure would be a concern. That is not the case however as there as hundreds of programming options so nothing to see here, move along.

gbmickey says:Mar 24, 2014 12:02 PM

The only fans who watch Thursday games are the fans of poor teams who either get blacked out or because their Sunday’s games are only televised locally by the NFL because lack of interest. Just ask Viking fans.

jbraider says:Mar 24, 2014 12:21 PM

Cuban is an idiot. I remember a few years ago he was whining because the NFL scheduled its draft when the NBA playoffs were on. If your league’s playoff games cannot go head to head with the NFL draft, that’s on you.

Ah, Mark Cuban. I do like his style, as an owner, challenging the “establishment” in the NBA. Of course, he is a smart business guy, BUT, he is an owner associated with an inferior product, ruled by outsized egos and dumb owners. The players are selfish, me-first types, and the league is awful. There are only 5 – 6 teams that are even worth watching. You can’t go from worst – to – first, ever, in said league, in one season. You have to stink for 3 – 4 years, just to become competitive. Player contracts are guaranteed, season is too long, there are too many teams, product is watered down, etc. etc. So, for an owner in an almost unwatchable pro sport to criticize or offer advice to the most successful of pro sports is a bit crazy.

How many fans are already tired of seeing 120 mil contracts, or 15 mil for a year? Ticket prices for the nosebleed sections in stadiums is outrageous, you have to pay to watch football on TV, fan gear prices are skyrocketing more than ever with Nike now having the contract, and you think he is wrong? A cash cow can only live so long….

willi828 says:Mar 24, 2014 2:54 PM

The facts just don’t support this theory. The NFL had record viewers on Thursday night despite “poor performances” as you all state.

tiger2471 says:Mar 24, 2014 6:36 PM

Football won’t get old because they only play 16 games a year not counting playoffs, it’s a big difference from basketball, they play 82 games! People love the hits and action, and basketball took a sharp downturn when Mike Jordan left, give it up Cuban! The NFL is king in the US, period.

As obnoxious and narcissistic as Mark Cuban is, I agree with many of you other posters who agree with him and also believe he is absolutely correct, you can have too much of a good thing though I don’t agree with his timeline–it will take more than ten years for the NFL to implode. He’s probably speaking from experience, I mean he has his own league plus the NHL and MLB as lab rats for over saturation. If you are a pay TV subscriber with the sports tier you can practically see a game from each of these leagues during their seasons every night yet I’d be willing to bet that most of you, like me, don’t watch a game that often especially when so many of the match-ups are straight “do-do”. The NFL would experience the same thing you can’t convince me that they wouldn’t.

I think the issues that would really kill the NFL in this country would be get even more greedy and put a team in a City outside North America and almighty help them if they hold a SB anywhere other than the US.

Mark Cuban is right. I wouldn’t necessarily call it greed as much as ignorance. One of the biggest thing the NFL has going for it is it has struck just the right balance of scarcity.

The NFL leaves people wanting more, while basketball and baseball give you way more than you could ever want.

They can try to own every single night of television, but eventually people will stop caring. The die-hards like us, that are visiting football blogs several times a day in March probably don’t think so, but if it was like baseball with 162 games, you would maybe watch a quarter of them.

It’s the same thing on making the season longer. You dilute the product, you make each game less meaningful, and people care a little bit less.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the NFL ownership is a bunch of fat pigs who are going to kill the NFL, but they could be making a mistake by messing with what has been so successful.

This is utterly ridiculous. If the public starts to become sick of the NFL being on almost every night the NFL owners (who are also obviously pretty good businessmen themselves) will pull back. If the public is growing tired of it, it won’t happen overnight. They’ll see the trends and make adjustments. Look what they did with MNF, moving the more important game to Sunday night and allowing the Monday night game to be of less importance despite the fact that the Monday night game had been THE game for the NFL for over 20 years.
The simple fact is that the NFL is now America’s game. People up to this point aren’t only not tired of it they can’t get enough of it. The number’s don’t lie and the profits are proof of it.
This sounds like a bunch of sour grapes from Cuban. MLB didn’t want him, the NFL wouldn’t want him and the NBA has to tolerate him.

higheriqthanyou says:Mar 28, 2014 9:05 AM

jackofnotrades says:
Mar 24, 2014 7:37 PM

the expansion of the playoffs is what will be the downfall of the nfl…just wait til that 6-10 team wins the lombardi
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So you think Minnesota finally wins one?